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Taking Sides Between Potential and Current Homeowners

By Pierre Lemieux | Sep 26 2024
The increase in the relative price of housing (relative to the prices of other goods and services) is the consequence of supply increasing less than demand. Many economic factors are at play, such as a growing population, land prices, and construction costs. Many political mandates and prohibitions play a role in limiting the supply of ...

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Truth, Loyalty Signaling, and Externalities

By Kevin Corcoran | Sep 24 2024

Early in her political career, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a particularly noteworthy comment. During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, she was questioned about a claim she made about Pentagon spending that was rated “Four Pinocchios” by the fact-checkers at the Washington post. While she acknowledge her error, she also has this to say: If people .. MORE

Featured Comment

I'm not sure what you are saying in the aside.  India buying cheap Russian oil has been reported for years in Economist, MSNBC, Fox, CNN, WSJ, ABC. Some simple Google searches (e.g. India Russia oil..

JoeF, September 26

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Free Markets

Trade and Wages

By Jon Murphy | Oct 3, 2024 | 0

In a recent essay at American Compass, Michael Lind attempts to refute certain aspects of economists’ case for free trade.  Others have addressed the numerous empirical, factual, and theoretical issues with his essay.  I will focus on just one particular claim.  Lind writes: The attack on tariffs as regressive taxes unites two of the themes .. MORE

Fiscal Policy

My October 1 Talk at OLLI

By David Henderson | Oct 2, 2024 | 9

A surprisingly receptive audience reaction to Social Security reform. Yesterday I gave a talk to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). I typically give 2 such talks in the spring and 2 in the fall. This year is no exception. One of the people involved with OLLI suggested .. MORE

Free Markets

Price Stickiness, Policy Stickiness

By Kevin Corcoran | Oct 2, 2024 | 4

Perfect markets make a nice fairy tale, but they don’t match reality. And few strawmen have been as repeatedly slain as the idea that the case for markets depends on market perfection, and thus the inevitable failure of real-world markets to match this textbook abstraction undercuts the argument for using markets. Some of the strongest .. MORE

International Trade

Why Sanctions Often Fail to Work

By Scott Sumner | Oct 1, 2024 | 17

Back in early 2022, there was a great deal of optimism that sanctions against Russia would cripple its economy. Those predictions have not come true. A recent article in The Economist shows why: Prior to 2022, Kazakhstan sold relatively little electrical machinery to Russia.  After the Ukraine invasion, Kazakh exports soared more than 7-fold.  How .. MORE

Free Markets

“Here, We Sell Local”: Collectivist or Tribal Protectionism

By Pierre Lemieux | Oct 1, 2024 | 35

That nationalism is a kind of collectivism or modern-tribalism is illustrated by a current phenomenon: foreigners seem so disliked that, in some people’s views, “we” should neither import from, nor export to, “them.” On the import side, foreigners—foreign producers or their governments or the latter’s taxpayers—are disliked because they produce goods at such a low .. MORE

International Macroeconomics

John Cochrane on Interest Rates and Exchange Rates

By Scott Sumner | Sep 29, 2024 | 3

In my recent book entitled Alternative Approaches to Monetary Policy, I described two different low interest rate monetary policies, one expansionary and contractionary: Because of the interest parity condition, we know that these are both low interest rate policies.  International investors will accept a lower interest rates in safe assets located in countries where the .. MORE

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Bloggers David Henderson, Alberto Mingardi, Scott Sumner, Pierre Lemieux, Kevin Corcoran, and guests write on topical economics of interest to them, illuminating subjects from politics and finance, to recent films and cultural observations, to history and literature.

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Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings

My Weekly Reading for September 22, 2024 7

The Economic Consequences of the French Wealth Tax by Eric Pichet, La Revue de Droit Fiscal, Vol. 14, p. 5, April 2007 Abstract: Despite attempts to ‘unwind’ the Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune (‘Solidarity Wealth Tax,’ the French wealth tax) during the last legislature (2002-2007), ISF yields had soared by 2006, jumping from €2.5 .. MORE

Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings

Mummified Political Economy: Institutional Gaps 0

[Editor’s note: This is part 3 of a three-part series. You can read part 1 here, and part 2 here.] Good institutions can be hard to come by, however, especially in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Institutions are at various stages of development in the story, from the ad hoc criminal justice system, the .. MORE

Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings

The Perversity of Medicare for All 18

Another nugget from Jonathan Lipow’s book Public Policy for Progressives. I’ve posted three times now on Lipow’s book (here, here, and here). One thing I like a lot about Jonathan is that although he’s a progressive, he’s also an economist. And he doesn’t leave his economics at the policy door. Here’s an interesting insight about .. MORE

Book Reviews and Suggested Readings

Joy in Economics… and Tolstoy?

By Richard Gunderman

Frontispiece, Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. This article was inspired by a recent Virtual Reading Group on Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, led by Richard Gunderman. Learn more about our Virtual Reading Groups at the Online Library of Liberty. To what field of study would a thoughtful person look to find more joy in life? For .. MORE

When the Elite Become the Elect

By Arnold Kling

With the rise of Third Wave Antiracism we are witnessing the birth of a new religion, just as Romans witnessed the birth of Christianity. The way to get past seeing the Elect as merely “crazy” is to understand that they are a religion. To see them this way is not to wallow in derision, but .. MORE

Helmut Schoeck’s Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour

By Art Carden

A Liberty Classic Book Review of Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck.1 I’ve been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that is equal, where there’d be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there’s always something to .. MORE

Frédéric Bastiat: The Jonathan Swift of Economics

By Caleb Fuller

A Liberty Classic Book Review of Economic Sophisms, by Frédéric Bastiat.1 “The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.” —Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms (1845). No one defends the cause of free trade against protectionism, individual freedom over central planning, and opportunity contra .. MORE